November Newsletter

NOVEMBER NEWS FROM THE RUNKLES

This past month was filled with many adventures . . . flood clean-up, a Central American road trip, two of our kids' birthdays, and continued busy days working at the school and the construction site. As most of you read in our last update, there was a big flood in Siguatepeque in October.  While no major damage was done to the city's infrastructure, many people lost possessions, several families lost homes, and a few people even lost their lives.  The picture on the left below is the pile of belongings that were pulled out of a house in town.  (The wooden structure there is the actual house.)  Most of the wood was ruined and had to be pulled down; inside, the floor was only mud, so everything was destroyed.  This house was right next door to the house of one of our Spanish teachers.  Our Spanish teacher's house is much more sturdy.  While much of their furniture and belongings were ruined, the house itself was OK.  We were thankful to be able to join a group of people who went to help with these two homes--throwing out the trash and cleaning up the house.  Several of the nearby churches worked tirelessly for many days to help those who had lost so much.  And many people donated clothes, furniture, and money to help.

Work on the new buildings continues.  Heath, Ethan, and occasionally Jesse, join the Honduran men in this important project.  The roof of the house is underway, and we're excited to see the progress! Erin is into the second quarter of the school year and is relieved to finally have almost all of the nearly-100 students' names learned.  Each music class is preparing a song for the Christmas program, and the 2nd graders are making progress on their English.  A few hundred new books have been given to the library, so work is being done on getting those into the system, and we're eagerly awaiting the new bookshelves to hold all the new books! To read more details about what we've been learning and experiencing during our first three months here, you can read Erin's blog. Ethan celebrated his 12th birthday with 12 hours in the car, as we started our road trip to Belize!  Jesse chose balleadas (a Honduran filled-tortilla meal) for his 10th birthday dinner. We enjoyed a "forced vacation" to Belize to renew our visas.  It was exciting to see Belize, as well as Guatemala, and we enjoyed some fun family time!  Thank you for praying for us!  Read more about it on Erin's blog. Special moment from the classroom:   This week I (Erin) was talking with one of my second graders about our family, and she was asking questions about our daughters' adoptions.  She is one of the children who lives at La Providencia and is in process of being adopted by her family here.  She was telling me that she and three of her siblings are also adopted.  It was cute because, while I already knew which ones were adopted and which were biological, she had to really think about it and correct herself a couple of times.  Adoptive parents get lots of questions, but she asked one I'd never had before:  "Do you like adoption?"  Of course I answered "Yes!" She nodded and said, "I do too.  I love adoption!" Such a sweet reminder of why La Providencia exists, and of why it's worth it to be here helping.  Thank you so much for your prayer, encouragement, gifts, and financial help.  You are truly a part of something that is making a difference--a huge difference--in the lives of children like Carolina, and something that matters in eternity.  Thank you so much.